Personality disorders are a type of mental disorder defined by the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-5) as "an enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectations of the individual’s culture, is pervasive and inflexible, has an onset in adolescence or early adulthood, is stable over time, and leads to distress or impairment."

Personality disorders often inhibit a person's ability to function successfully in society, but are, by and large, not harmful to society (with certain exceptions). Megalomania, fear of interaction, belief that one is destined to be something "great", trouble with relationships and unstable self-image are all aspects that can lead to a diagnosis of "personality disorder."

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Three-quarters of those diagnosed with borderline personality disorder are female. There is some speculation that because of gender stereotypes, a person manifesting certain thought and behavior patterns (e.g. impulsivity, anger, lying, reckless disregard for safety of self and others) is more likely to be diagnosed with BPD if female and antisocial personality disorder if male. A distinction sometimes drawn between BPD and ASPD is that borderlines "act in" by harming themselves while ASPDs "act out" by harming others.[1] Though that doesn't preclude the former from acting violent towards others or the latter from committing self-harm, of course, as illustrated by murderer and alleged kitten killer Luka Magnotta, a young male adult diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.

With regard to the criteria, a major distinction between BPD and ASPD is the ASPD requirement "There is evidence of Conduct Disorder with onset before age 15 years." There is sometimes comorbidity between BPD and ASPD,[2] and men who physically abuse women often have borderline and antisocial traits.[3] According to the DSM, another difference between BPD and ASPD is that people with BPD are manipulative to gain the concern and nurturance of caregivers, while people with ASPD are manipulative to gain power, profit, or some other material gratification. Also, people with ASPD tend to be less emotionally unstable and more aggressive than people with BPD.

This disorder is sometimes referred to as psychopathy, with those affected called psychopaths. People with this disorder show little concern for others and experience shallow emotion. They are also prone to lying. Thus these people are likely to become charlatans, shysters, and other deceitful persons. It is estimated that 60-80% of some prison populations consist of people who suffer from ASPD. Symptoms tend to peak during the late teenage years and early 20s. They sometimes improve on their own by a person's 40s.[4]

From 1917 to 1990, U.S. immigration law banned homosexuals from entering the country, on the grounds that they were psychopaths. Congress intended the term "psychopathic personality" to designate homosexuals as well as persons having psychopathic disorders, as that term is generally understood.[5]

Psychopaths are often difficult to spot and blend in due to their "superficial charm". They disregard the rights of others and often break the law and are criminals.

BPD is a serious personality disorder. The symptoms fall into different groups. One of these is an inability to appropriately regulate emotions—this leads to a variety of many long lasting and dark emotions, most notably a profound feeling of emptiness, but also depression, furious outbursts, fear and shame—among others.[6]

Randi Kreger's Stop Walking on Eggshells and Splitting alleges that BPD can be a reason why people make false allegations of rape and domestic violence, although there is no evidence to support this and they are many people who suffer from BPD who can actually be victims of such things. Rates of false allegations of rape are the same as any other crime..[7] Dana Becker argues, "The BPD diagnosis has been used in court to institutionalize and/or medicate women involuntarily, deny them custody of their children, and have their parental rights terminated. Women diagnosed as having BPD have also frequently been discredited as witnesses in court cases involving rape or sexual abuse."[8]

Quinn Capes-Ivy argues, "Could that 'inappropriate anger' be not a disordered way of thinking, but valid female rage against a world which devalues women and things which are thought of as 'traditionally feminine'?"[9] BPD was described by Gillian Proctor as "the latest example of a historical tendency to explain away as 'madness' the strategies some women use to survive oppression and abuse."[10] Jennifer Reimer argues, "The portrayal of 'borderline women' in films in the late 1980s and early 1990s, such as Fatal Attraction, and Single White Female, as well as books like I Hate You, Don’t Leave Me, played a significant role in the stigmatization of so-called 'borderline' women."[11] Some feminists are eager to discredit the concept of BPD because feminism has been described as a stronghold for BPDs.[12]

The prevailing theory about people with BPD is that their perceptions (e.g. splitting, regarding a person as all good or all bad) and resulting behavior toward those they have devalued is the result of subconscious defense mechanisms rather than the kind of purposeful malice exhibited by those with ASPD. Indeed, many sufferers of BPD have lost companionship and friendships due to doing what simply believed was the right thing or what they had to do, even if lying or other sorts of destructive behavior is involved[note 1] Some men's rights writers such as Paul Elam argue that borderlines know what they are doing and often enjoy it.[13]

More recent studies have provided evidence that BPD is at least partly genetic in origin and has measurable biological effects that challenge its classification ad a personality disorder. Specifically, people with BPD have been found to show a combination of unusually high levels of activity within the amygdala[14] and reduced prefrontal cortex activity, which would result in disproportionate emotional responses that cannot be regulated effectively.

↑"de Barros et al found that while antisocial individuals tend to engage in more property crimes, borderline individuals tend to exhibit more episodes of aggression and physical violence. The authors concluded that criminals with pure antisocial personality are more calculating and exhibit more detailed planning, whereas those with BPD experience more impulsive and explosive episodes of violence. Again, one would assume that combining the two disorders would result in a very criminally combustible outcome." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2790397/

↑"Feminism: Stronghold for Borderlines". http://splitsburgh.com/feminism-stronghold-for-borderlines/. "As feminism is an ideology of eternal victimhood, it is a seductive cause for women with borderline personality disorder. Rather than shaping her outlook to conform to that of the group, feminism fits with her warped view of reality out of the gate. She is able to easily take the microcosm of her personal life, with men as the perpetrators, and scale it to the political macrocosm, with the patriarchy as the abstract oppressive force holding her back."